NEW!HAGI SO 17 Oribe "SOU-SHUN" Comes the Spring Phase 1

From the Hagi innovator Yamane Seigan comes a totally brand new offering, never seen before. And it is a beauty!

"SOU-SHUN" Comes the Spring. We see the white of Winter melting and giving way to the greens of Spring.

Phase 1 Notched Foot Oribe. This topic will be dealing with Phase 1!!!

Phase 2 "Cut Foot" Oribe. These will be in another topic on Thursday January 26th at 6 pm (preview posted 3 hours prior) Many of these have multiple "drippies" and some do not.

Oribe is very unusual for Hagi.

I love greens, love Oribe, and have wanted to have an Oribe SO for quite some time. But having only seen 3 Hagi Oribe pieces before, they each had the deep green Oribe on the interior as well. Not very desirable for tea drinking.

In discussing this, I asked, why not have a white interior, and have the green bleed into the white, and the white bleed into the green. And as they say, “the rest is history.”

When doing something this radically new and different for Hagi SOs, I have come to expect at least one failed firing, maybe several, maybe many months will pass, maybe it will never come to fruition. Especially when working with a challenging glaze as Oribe.

I was very pleasantly surprised when the first firing was a huge success! The first firing created this spectacular result. Everyone involved including Seigan was very impressed with the results. I find these to be spectacular in glaze and dramatic contrasts and the running together of the glazes is so cool.

Thus, the fickle finger of fate had 2 Hagi SOs arriving within literally a couple days of each other … certainly not planned this way as the Eiichi Commission took a full year and this Oribe took only 6 weeks from final conception to fruition.

HOWEVER, it is also opportune as you can also combine shipping with an Eiichi Commission and receive 2 completely new and dramatically divergent pieces shipped together.

AND a bonus, many of these have “DRIPPIES” of epic proportions. In a firing, if you are lucky you might get one or two drippies in the entire firing … or none at all. Here you have multiple, dramatic drippies on many pieces. This has never happened in a Hagi SO.

The glaze on these pieces I am told is hard to capture in photos, but it is lustrous, deep forest green with multiple subtle hues and colors. The glaze is satiny to moderately glossy, not a high gloss. I imagine this will feel “warm and soft" in hand. The glaze tends to smooth over time and with much use.

Since the auction is 3 days (ending Wednesday at 10 pm Eastern USA time), I am not doing the normal 3 day notification for Hagi SOs.

Here is the deal. Email a bid on the cup(s) of your choice(s) to teachatmoderator@yahoo.com with “Oribe Bid” as the subject. Bids will be accepted up to the Wednesday January 25, 2012 at 10 pm Eastern USA time, though there is no advantage to waiting as I will not open bids til the auction is closed!

You can send multiple emails if you want to or need to should you decide to up your bid or to include other notched foot pieces. If you bid on more than one Notched Foot piece, be sure to clearly state your preference order, which you would want first, second, third, etc. You can only win one, and it will be your highest preference win.

If you want to bid on more than one, place your bids in order of preference. If you “win” the first preference, your bids on other pieces will ultimately be voided, etc. You will only be charged a max $2 over the next highest bid, so you can bid as high as you want without risk.

But you will only have one bid on each piece. Then after the deadline/close, if you are the highest bidder, you win. If you are not, you do not get to rebid. However, if you bid on another notched foot, you are still in the running for that piece.

By special arrangement, anything over $60 per piece will go to the TeaChat Japan Relief Fund which has already raised over $900. Minimum bid is $60. But I hope for much higher!

PLEASE NOTE: #21 and #24. With high risk comes big rewards, thus you will see the abundantly drippy pieces with the standard foot pieces of Phase 2. However #21 and #24 had glaze adhesions to the kiln shelf. If you look closely at the very base of the foot where the glaze meets the kiln shelf, you can see 3 on #21 and 2 on #24. I will be placing a bid on one of these. If I win, when I receive it, I may use an ultra fine ceramic file and/or stone polishing cloth on it and/or I may do nothing at all … to me this would be a special piece. The pieces are stunning, but you should be aware of this.

Phase 2 will be posted the next day, Thursday at 6 pm Eastern USA time The standard cut foot pieces #1-19 with lots of drippies of Phase 2 will be posted in a separate topic. The topic will be opened 3 hours prior for previewing!

Will you be posting some more details about the phase 2 cups before the phase 1 bid deadline passes? I'd like to know their relative sizes before I decide whether or not to bid on the notched foot cups.

And by the way, what is the significance of the notched vs cut feet, besides esthetic preference--is there a traditional meaning to the notched foot?

Drax wrote:Super cool... so beautiful! I assume the name is 早春, or 'early spring'?

In any case, an absolutely stunning double-whammy...

Yes, early Spring. Perhaps a metaphor of a new beginning for Japan. A lot of these are very subtle nuances.

And yeah, add stunning to the list of not so subtle adjectives!

debunix wrote:Will you be posting some more details about the phase 2 cups before the phase 1 bid deadline passes? I'd like to know their relative sizes before I decide whether or not to bid on the notched foot cups.

And by the way, what is the significance of the notched vs cut feet, besides esthetic preference--is there a traditional meaning to the notched foot?

The "cut" foot pieces of Phase 2 are a tiny bit smaller. 3.34" - 3.54" ... so about 1/4 inch less wide.

You ask a good question re the notched foot. I will have to ask. I personally like how it adds some dramatic element to the look and it feels surprising good in hand ... not like I expected.

I mis-understood the setup when I first read it last night (I'll chalk it up to being in a haze from a cold)... but this auction is different from the Sendai one? This one will have no updates on any of the bids, and bids are only examined after closing on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, speaking of early spring, we keep buffetting up to the 60s here in Virginia Beach and have only had a few 'cold' days... if we keep this up, it'll be like we barely had a winter.

camw wrote:How lucky we are to have access to unique offers like this. Thanks as usual for all your work Chip.

Humble thanks ... it is an honor and a privilege to be able to be involved in this manner.

Drax wrote:I mis-understood the setup when I first read it last night (I'll chalk it up to being in a haze from a cold)... but this auction is different from the Sendai one? This one will have no updates on any of the bids, and bids are only examined after closing on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, speaking of early spring, we keep buffetting up to the 60s here in Virginia Beach and have only had a few 'cold' days... if we keep this up, it'll be like we barely had a winter.

You are correct. Bids will not be updated here. And they will be "officially opened" after the close of the auction on Wednesday at 10 pm Eastern USA time.

You can update your bids nevertheless.

60's sounds pretty good. It will reach 50* here today. I am certainly not complaining considering the normal high for this time of year is around 32*/0* C. So, maybe we are in early Spring. Well, I will not get my hopes up.

Chip wrote:I will say this, the notched foot is pretty hard for even a cat to knock over.

that is a most excellent point to ponder!

I am certain this was a consideration in their creation.

The bidding continues for these amazing 4 Notched Foot Oribe Phase 1 pieces. You can place your bid and amend it up to 10 pm Eastern USA time on Wednesday. Although the bidding has started off slow, each piece has at least one bid, and I expect to see more bidding as the deadline approaches. All "profits" from this Phase 1 will go towards the TeaChat Japan Relief Effort.

Then as mentioned, on Thursday Phase 2 will be posted in another topic. Phase 2 includes 19 pieces. These will have set prices.